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bethreadsandnaps's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve never read a book of short stories, essays and interviews. It’s a hodgepodge, but it seems to be a good sampler platter of Meg Elison’s writing.
Many of her stories revolve around being big/fat. The Pill seems science fiction but also plausible.
I also liked her analysis of Gone with the Wind over time.
Interesting collection!
Many of her stories revolve around being big/fat. The Pill seems science fiction but also plausible.
I also liked her analysis of Gone with the Wind over time.
Interesting collection!
wanderlustlover's review against another edition
4.0
Summer 2021 (June);
2021 Hugo Nominee
This story is such a well-done horror story that could so easily become a reality. The world looks down on overweight people, while they are encouraged and required to search after miracle cures and diets to solve it, or to live in the enraged/disgusted of the eyes of others, with no true and happy middle ground to be found especially in America. The ostracism and wrestling with self is so painful clear and honest.
It's chilling how easily this could come to be in the current-times, with the erasure of over weight people (even the point of skinny people taking "the pill" in the story to make sure they could never gain weight), but so was the point of everyone suddenly looking the same, becoming carbon copies of each other, and how society would brand together to suddenly outlaw being fat. How it would suddenly become this riskque, speakeasy fetish of the rare and impossible.
2021 Hugo Nominee
This story is such a well-done horror story that could so easily become a reality. The world looks down on overweight people, while they are encouraged and required to search after miracle cures and diets to solve it, or to live in the enraged/disgusted of the eyes of others, with no true and happy middle ground to be found especially in America. The ostracism and wrestling with self is so painful clear and honest.
It's chilling how easily this could come to be in the current-times, with the erasure of over weight people (even the point of skinny people taking "the pill" in the story to make sure they could never gain weight), but so was the point of everyone suddenly looking the same, becoming carbon copies of each other, and how society would brand together to suddenly outlaw being fat. How it would suddenly become this riskque, speakeasy fetish of the rare and impossible.
otiggerifico's review against another edition
5.0
There's something magical about reading a book about fat, by a fat author, talking to their fat audience. I love this book.
The stories aren't happy, and there's probably some triggers needed for just acknowledging what life is like for fat people (and our nightmares of how it could become worse) but there's such a fierce and angry joy in the writing.
My favourite in the collection is The Pill, it hints towards my favourite theme (found family) and the protagonist is so confident in knowing herself and seizing happiness where she can.
For nothing else though, I'd love this book for some of the lines in Guts (the last piece),
The stories aren't happy, and there's probably some triggers needed for just acknowledging what life is like for fat people (and our nightmares of how it could become worse) but there's such a fierce and angry joy in the writing.
My favourite in the collection is The Pill, it hints towards my favourite theme (found family) and the protagonist is so confident in knowing herself and seizing happiness where she can.
For nothing else though, I'd love this book for some of the lines in Guts (the last piece),
Spoiler
"When their [thin people] talk rolls around to calories and their moral obligation to hate themselves, I typically spread out as wide as I can. I can expand like a jellyfish; it is a particular advantage of the very fat. I conform to the shape of my container like a water balloon. Displaying maximum width, I'll eat anything I can get my hands on while they talk"bookaneer's review against another edition
5.0
Rating for The Pill only, a nomination for the Best Novelette for the Hugo Awards this year.
WOW. Story like this is what makes me love speculative fiction. It's not just well written with an engaging main character but it is chilling, profound, and terrifyingly possible. There's very, very few representation for fat characters in SFF and this one is probably my favorite so far since it does focus on body image, filial and societal dynamics, and of course a certain brave-new-world scenario. Imagine if your world and everything in it literally shrinks and you just don't fit in anymore either physically or communally, you can't even study or work since the office spaces can't accommodate you anymore from chairs to doors, and you have to make your own bed literally since no stores sell your size anymore. And that's not the worst.
I will definitely try to read the other stories in this book.
WOW. Story like this is what makes me love speculative fiction. It's not just well written with an engaging main character but it is chilling, profound, and terrifyingly possible. There's very, very few representation for fat characters in SFF and this one is probably my favorite so far since it does focus on body image, filial and societal dynamics, and of course a certain brave-new-world scenario. Imagine if your world and everything in it literally shrinks and you just don't fit in anymore either physically or communally, you can't even study or work since the office spaces can't accommodate you anymore from chairs to doors, and you have to make your own bed literally since no stores sell your size anymore. And that's not the worst.
I will definitely try to read the other stories in this book.
pastathief's review against another edition
3.0
This was good. I'm finding it hard to think of what else to say. It didn't electrify me, but I'm not sure why. Still, I read it through in my reading time without pause, and didn't dislike it at all. I just found it overall okay, which in many ways is the hardest sort of book to usefully review.
One thing I will say is that it was much shorter than I expected, which sat awkwardly with the section of the airport interview where they talked about how prolific she is. The interview itself was also less deep than it could have been. Ultimately, it did little for the book.
But the stories were good, and fine, and just never really transcended that for me. That's likely just me and I suspect many of you would love this book to bits.
As this was my first exposure to Meg Ellison, I'm still very interested in reading more, so in that sense it succeeded.
One thing I will say is that it was much shorter than I expected, which sat awkwardly with the section of the airport interview where they talked about how prolific she is. The interview itself was also less deep than it could have been. Ultimately, it did little for the book.
But the stories were good, and fine, and just never really transcended that for me. That's likely just me and I suspect many of you would love this book to bits.
As this was my first exposure to Meg Ellison, I'm still very interested in reading more, so in that sense it succeeded.
nataliya_x's review against another edition
3.0
This review is only for Hugo and Nebula Awards nominee for Best Novelette The Pill:
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This is a very well-done horror story that can easily become reality. If you think it can’t, you’re kidding yourself. It’s so bleak and uncomfortable in the way it rings true — and quite effective at conveying loneliness and ostracism from the “greater” society. I do not necessarily love this story - not sure why, but it just doesn’t hit that “love” button in my heart - but I respect the hell out of it.
3.5 stars.
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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299
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“She wanted what everybody wants. Respect.”It’s no secret to anyone that fat people are rarely taken seriously in our society — it’s that completely undeserved stigma of being not good enough, lazy, weak-willed, unintelligent that hangs over those with BMIs out of socially accepted range. Meg Ellison takes showing it to a new level in “The Pill”, imagining what is very likely to happen if there’s an easy cure for being fat - a new weight loss pill that lets you shed all the extra pounds (and even the extra skin from all that weight loss) quickly and permanently. Even if you have a 10% chance to die. With even thin people taking the pill just so they would never run a risk of gaining weight. And the world would quickly make it impossible for fat people to continue to exist.
“One in ten kept dying. The average never improved, not in any corner of the globe. There were memorials for the famous and semifamous folks who took the gamble and lost. A congressman here and a comedian there. But everyone was so proud of them that they had died trying to better themselves that all the obituaries and eulogies had a weird, wistful tone to them. As if it was the next best thing to being thin. At least they didn’t have to live that fat life anymore.”
This is a very well-done horror story that can easily become reality. If you think it can’t, you’re kidding yourself. It’s so bleak and uncomfortable in the way it rings true — and quite effective at conveying loneliness and ostracism from the “greater” society. I do not necessarily love this story - not sure why, but it just doesn’t hit that “love” button in my heart - but I respect the hell out of it.
3.5 stars.
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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299